My basement connects to another world.

Chapter 56 Map

Chapter 59 Map

It had gotten completely dark.

Only a thin layer of twilight seeped into the study through the window.

Jiang Yuan walked into the study, his gaze sweeping over a corner of the long table.

There was something there that looked like a lamp.

He walked over and sat down, reaching out to scoop the thing up in front of him.

It feels slightly heavy and cool to the touch.

This thing is about the size of a palm, made entirely of some kind of dark metal, with a flat cylindrical base that is smooth on the surface, except for a few neatly arranged lines engraved on the side.

Atop the base is a fist-sized, spherical, transparent crystal. The inside of the crystal is hazy and gray, like a cloud of solidified mist, with no light shining through at the moment.

Not an oil lamp? Jiang Yuan was slightly taken aback.

He looked around and saw that there was no oil bottle, no wick hole, and no candle holder.

The whole thing fits together perfectly.

Jiang Yuan pinched the crystal at the top and twisted it, but it didn't budge, as if it were cast into one piece with the base.

Tissa stood to the side, assuming the other person was just casually turning on the light, and didn't pay much attention.

But after a while, her gaze gradually changed.

He doesn't know how to use the magic crystal lamp?

The corners of her mouth couldn't help but curve slightly, and then she felt a sense of unease.

The mysterious man who suddenly appeared in front of them didn't even know how to operate the magic crystal lamp, which wasn't exactly rare in the Kingdom of Arcane.

Jiang Yuan held the whole thing in his hand and turned it over. He found a small, inconspicuous groove on the bottom of the base and tried pressing it with his thumb.

As soon as the fingertip sank in, the gray mist inside the crystal surged violently, and then the entire crystal lit up, emitting a warm and soft orange-yellow light.

Like a lamp oil flame lit to the perfect degree.

Jiang Yuan was somewhat surprised and picked up the object, asking, "What is this?"

He remembered that when he first arrived at Cape Territory, he had caught a glimpse of this thing in Marcus's room.

At the time, I thought it was just an oil lamp.

Tissa explained, "This is a magic crystal lamp, an alchemical item that uses magic crystals as its driving core."

Magic Crystal Lamp — Jiang Yuandao: "This thing isn't cheap, is it? How many gold coins is it worth?"

Tissa's tone was strange: "Without gold coins, in the City of Theog, you could buy it for four or five copper coins. It should be more expensive here, costing dozens of copper coins?"

Jiang Yuan was stunned for a moment.

He had assumed that something that could glow without oil or fire must be a rare item.

All you need are copper coins?

In this world, 100 copper coins can be exchanged for 1 silver coin, and 100 silver coins can be exchanged for 1 gold coin.

Jiang Yuan became interested: "How does this magic crystal lamp work?"

Tissa reached out and took the magic crystal lamp, tapping the small groove at the bottom of the lamp base: "There's a magic crystal chip embedded in here, about the size of a fingernail, which is the most valuable part of the whole lamp."

"Magic crystal?"

"Magic crystals are a type of natural mineral. When they are mined, they contain primordial magic power. The raw ore is sent to the alchemy workshop to be made into standard-sized magic crystals, which can stably store the magic power."

"Once triggered, the magic power stored in the magic chip will be activated and released, transforming into light. As for the lamp base itself, it is made of the most ordinary white iron and is not worth much."

Jiang Yuan nodded thoughtfully.

It seems that the other world has developed its own unique civilization system through magic.

Then he realized something. Since this thing only cost a few dozen copper coins, he had collected quite a few gold coins from Marcus.

I counted them, and there must be five or six hundred of them.

That's incredible purchasing power! How many similar "magical items" could that buy?

He asked, "I found five or six hundred gold coins in Mars's treasury. What can I buy with that?"

"Five or six hundred?" Tissa was suddenly startled and almost blurted out, "Impossible."

"Why is it impossible again?"

Tissa's expression turned serious. Confirming that he wasn't joking, she carefully chose her words to ensure he truly understood what the number meant.

She said slowly, "Because given the conditions in the Cape Territory, he couldn't possibly have that many gold coins; he couldn't possibly save them all."

"Do you know what you can buy with five or six hundred gold coins? Right here in this area, Cape Territory. Those gold coins could buy more than two of those places!"

"Worth this much!" Jiang Yuan felt both pleased and puzzled.

He was delighted that his unexpected windfall was worth more than he had imagined, but he was also worried, wondering if it was counterfeit money.

"So valuable? Is it fake?"

Tissa shook her head: "It shouldn't be fake. No one can counterfeit the Kingdom's gold coins. The gold coins are made by incorporating alchemical materials during the minting process, which cannot be imitated by ordinary means."

Jiang Yuan nodded: "It's a pity I didn't have a chance to spend it."

Tissa said, "We can buy these from the caravans when they pass by. Although Cape Territory is remote, caravans will definitely come every now and then."

Jiang Yuan nodded, made a note of it, then opened a drawer, pulled out a parchment scroll, and spread it out on the table: "Take a look at this."

Tissa looked down.

The parchment scrolls were decorated with drawings, but there were no text labels on them.

It consists of only scribbled lines and some crooked symbols, which at first glance seem to be scribbled on the spot, but upon closer inspection, one can see some structure.

Tissa's gaze fell directly in front of the picture.

There were two short, thick vertical lines drawn there, very close to each other, with a narrow gap in the middle, like a crack.

Next to the crack, some fine dots were drawn, which at first glance looked like scattered pebbles.

"Could this be a map of Cape Territory?" she wondered.

That fissure looks a lot like the canyon that depicts the entrance and exit of the territory.

Jiang Yuan nodded and said, "I guessed so. But what does this line mean?"

This parchment scroll was the other one he acquired when he obtained the two Abyss Scrolls. After looking at it, he felt it was very likely a map of Cape Territory.

So let's have Tissa, this "local university student," analyze it.

Tissa's gaze followed the canyon's location backward.

There was indeed a horizontal line drawn outside the canyon exit.

"This line is roughly the plain outside the canyon. I heard from Rogge's guards that it's a place where a lot of magical beasts roam."

Jiang Yuan suddenly realized.

Tissa stretched out her hand and pointed along the road that had been carved out of the plain: "This should be Yuri's territory, the land of another lord. We passed through here on our way here."

Next, she moved her finger to the far end of the map, where a wavy curve was drawn, with several arcs forming an inward-curving shape.

"This is Cape Territory, which probably refers to the bay behind the territory."

Outward from the bay, near the left edge of the map, there are several messy circles, one of which contains a crooked skull.

Next to the skull are several small symbols, which look like musical notes or water droplets.

There was an X on the skull.

Tissa frowned.

A skull with a cross, no matter which map it's on, is basically a danger marker; that much is certain.

As for the first note, she thought for a moment, it could be either a marker for some kind of magical beast that could make a sound, or a warning related to sound.

She raised her eyes and imagined the location of that sea area. Those that could appear in the reef area were mostly related to the sea.

"This might be a warning that some kind of dangerous monster is lurking here."

Then she looked to the right side of the map.

There was a large patch of gray shadow there.

In the shadows, there were several fish-head-like things drawn, flat with wide-open mouths, and each fish head had an X marked on it.

Tissa immediately deduced, "That thing with the fish head drawn on it and crossed out is probably a swamp fishman," a relatively common magical beast with some intelligence.

"Warcraft 1000" — Jiang Yuan pointed to two small symbols at the edge of the gray shadow.

One was drawn like a mushroom, and the other like a flower.

Both symbols are drawn very small, hidden in the lines at the edge of the shadow, and are easy to miss if you don't look carefully.

"What is this?"

"These two—" Tissa stared at the mushroom and flower symbols for a while before slowly saying, "Following the conventions of map drawing, they're specially marked. They should be things that can be gathered in the swamp, perhaps some kind of alchemical material?"

As she spoke, she looked up, her tone puzzled: "This map was also found through a search? But the level of the Cape Territory couldn't have produced such a detailed map."

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Jiang Yuan asked, "Is this map difficult to draw? Why do you say it can't be drawn?"

He felt the map was drawn too hastily and simply.

Tissa explained, "This is already one of the most remote places in the kingdom. Look at the locations marked on the map. If you wanted to go there to investigate and draw them out line by line, the manpower in Cape Territory simply couldn't do it."

"Moreover, for them, spending so much effort to explore is not worthwhile except for the danger. So this map could only have been obtained through other means."

Jiang Yuan seemed to be deep in thought.

Tissa nodded, her finger moving to the last clearly marked spot.

It was a jumbled mass of black blocks, piled up one on top of another, like stacked stones.

There is a square with a missing piece in the middle of the black block, and next to the square is a small circle with a cross inside the circle.

"I know this place; it should be an abandoned mine," Jiang Yuan said.

He learned this from the Knights captain, Marin.

This mine is not unfamiliar to the locals who live in "Tide Rising Town".

It has been closed for less than a hundred years, which is only the time it takes for two or three generations.

It is said that an accident occurred inside, and the miners went insane. After that, no one dared to go in anymore, and the mine gradually fell into disrepair.

Jiang Yuan mentally pieced together a complete map of the entire terrain.

Cape Collar isn't great, but it's not too bad either.

Although there is little arable land, a large swamp on the right, and some kind of magical beast lurking in the bay on the left, the terrain bends here, connecting to the canyon that leads out.

In other words, the entire territory has only one canyon directly in front as its entrance and exit, and the surrounding terrain perfectly protects it.

Their defense is unbeatable.

This kind of place is perfect for peaceful development—Jiang Yuan put the map aside and looked up at Tissa.

Now that they have territory and gold coins, they have a decent place to settle down and find out the reason for the crystal finger bone.

But what truly allows one to gain a foothold in this land is strength.

Because the Frostclaw tribe has few records of the power system in this world, his understanding of it is still not clear enough.

Jiang Yuan said, "Next, let's talk about magic."

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